The GOP Is Coming for the Prosecutors
Republican Party leaders are now explicitly targeting elected prosecutors in the latest sign of its anti-democratic drift.
An anti-democracy party, as the GOP has now become, inevitably reaches a point where the chief obstacle to its achieving power is the very operation of the rule of law. The system itself becomes the enemy.
Those pesky judges and civil rights lawyers, for example, are constantly blocking laws that the red state legislatures manage to pass. Even worse, there are lawyers paid by the state—no doubt part of the imagined “Deep State” so opposed to Republican ambitions—who outright refuse to enforce draconian right-wing laws on the books. The more intrepid prosecutors actually dare to open investigations into officials’ activities and bring criminal charges.
What’s a corrupt party to do?
The next logical step for the GOP is to come after the prosecutors themselves. And we are seeing it happen more often these days: from the House GOP launching investigations into Trump prosecutions; to governors such as Ron De Santis of Florida firing assistant state attorneys general who dare stand up to his office or to corrupt law enforcement; to entire legislative efforts, such as a new law in Georgia designed to “rein in” local prosecutors such as Fani Willis—who just happen to be presently investigating GOP-led election crimes.
Today, we’ll look at examples, both at the national and state level, of GOP political overreach and how it might be affecting the administration of justice. Specifically, we’ll examine efforts by the Republican House majority, Gov. DeSantis’s office, and members of the Georgia legislature to improperly interfere in the work of prosecutors. On the last point, we’ll do a threat assessment to help ascertain whether this will amount to mostly just political theatre—or whether there is a real risk of disruption of the Trump case in Georgia.
The House GOP kisses up to Trump, attacks local prosecutions
When Kevin McCarthy was trading promises for votes in support of his speakership back in January of this year, one of them was to the Freedom Caucus. The far-right was eager to begin oversight hearings into all manner of issues, including the Hunter Biden investigation, the Covid-19 pandemic response, and the so-called Twitter files, which supposedly showed how Big Tech colluded with the FBI to suppress right-wing voices.
So far, the hearings have been a complete bust, with no new dirt on Biden and no big fireworks over Fauci or Twitter.
But when a Manhattan grand jury indicted Donald Trump for false business statements relating to the cover up of hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, the House GOP leapt to provide political cover for the ex-president.
Specifically, three leading members of the House GOP, all in powerful committee chair positions, decided to insert themselves directly into the case. Their press release stated,
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) sent a letter to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg demanding communications, documents, and testimony relating to Bragg's unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority and the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Bragg, through a spokesperson, shot back in a letter, noting that his office was
investigating allegations that Donald Trump engaged in violations of New York State penal law. The investigation is one of thousands conducted by the Office of the District Attorney in its long history of pursuing justice and protecting New Yorkers. The investigation has been conducted consistently with the District Attorney's oath to faithfully execute the laws of the State of New York.
Bragg called the demand “an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution” and further noted that
“The District Attorney is obliged by the federal and state constitutions to protect the independence of state law enforcement functions from federal interference.
Bragg was correct in pushing back. It was the very first time anyone in Congress had attempted interference at this scale, and it shocked legal observers. As Norman Eisen et al. wrote at the time,
Congress cannot lawfully use its investigative power to engage in law enforcement. But we argue that is precisely what these congressmen are attempting by seeking to second-guess and superintend a single specific pending case by a prosecutor. Any move to issue a subpoena demanding Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg appear in Washington should be viewed as meddling that is both brazenly partisan and probably unlawful.
While Congress has broad powers to investigate, the Supreme Court recently held, somewhat ironically in Trump v. Mazar, the case about Congress obtaining Trump’s income tax and business records, that it is valid only if it is “related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress.”
But interfering with a state prosecution isn’t a legitimate task by any stretch.
Jordan didn’t really get anywhere with his first threat against Bragg. But fast forward to today, and once again he’s running interference for Trump, this time calling for hearings to investigate Fani Willis’s motivations for prosecuting Donald Trump in Fulton County. (Spoiler alert: She is “motivated” by the crimes Trump committed within her jurisdiction.)
No one really expects Fani Willis to pay Jim Jordan in Congress much heed. It’s political theatre, but it’s designed to send a chilling message: We will use whatever power we have to stop you.
And that kind of message is being heard and amplified by others in the GOP, including Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Ron DeSantis fires local AGs, but is he covering up misdeeds?
Governor DeSantis of Florida has now summarily sacked two state attorneys general who refused to toe the Tallahassee line—a fact he boasted about at the first Republican primary debate. He labeled them “radical left-wing district attorneys” who “wouldn’t do their job.”
Here’s the backstory. In August of 2022, DeSantis began his purge. He fired Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, who had refused publicly to jail women who had obtained abortions in violation of Florida’s new and increasingly draconian abortion bans. State law now prohibits abortions past the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant. Warren fought for reinstatement, but while the judge concluded that DeSantis was wrong to fire Warren, he found the court lacked power to order him reinstated.
This appears to have emboldened DeSantis. This month, he suspended another progressive state attorney general, Monique Worrell. In a statement, DeSantis accused Worrell of “neglect of duty” and “incompetence,” and he made her part of his “anti-woke” campaign.
“Worrell’s practices and policies have too often allowed violent criminals to escape the full consequences of their criminal conduct, thereby endangering the innocent civilians of Orange and Osceola counties,” his office declared.
But as The Daily Beast learned, this may be just a convenient cover. According to its reporting, Worrell
was about to crack down on a wide-ranging cover-up by deputies who, she says, were faking documents to hide lethal and abusive behavior.
“They thought that I was overly critical of law enforcement and didn't do anything against ‘real criminals,’” Worrell told The Daily Beast in an interview last week. “Apparently there’s a difference between citizens who commit crimes and cops who commit crimes.”
Worrell continued that there are approximately 20 law enforcement agencies in Central Florida. “And they were all working against me, because I was prosecuting their cops, the ones who used to do things and get away with them,” she said.
In short, if this report proves correct, DeSantis is abusing the power of his office to run interference on an investigation into other officials’ crimes.
Meddling in cases that might hold powerful people accountable? That sounds awfully familiar. It leads us back, once again, to new pressures on Fani Willis in Georgia as she launches the next phase of her historic state prosecution of Donald Trump.
They really want to get Fani Willis in Georgia. Can they succeed?
With the Fulton County grand jury’s massive indictment of Trump and several high ranking GOP officials, including some Republican state party leaders, Fani Willis has become a favorite target for MAGA politicians seeking to show they are doing something, anything, to protect their leader and his cohorts.
Their efforts have included calls to change the Georgia state constitution to allow Governor Kemp to pardon convicts directly, rather than leave the matter to a state parole board as the constitution currently dictates. And there have even been calls for a special session of the legislature to censure or remove Willis from the case.
Presently, Gov. Kemp is opposed to both proposals, and they aren’t likely to go anywhere. Nor would Kemp pardon Trump even if he had the power to, given the amount of bad blood between the two. Trump supported Kemp’s opponent in the primary and recently took his fury out him, posting on Truth Social that the Georgia governor
is fighting hard against the impeachment of the crooked, incompetent & highly partisan D.A. of Fulton County, Fani Willis, who has allowed murder and other violent crime to MASSIVELY ESCALATE…
(Despite the all caps messaging, there is no evidence to support Trump’s claim of escalating crime there.)
And in another good sign for democracy, the Georgia Speaker of the House, Jon Burns, also demonstrated a solid understanding of the proper role of politicians in the criminal justice system. He recently said to his caucus in a letter that “targeting one specific DA in this manner” flouts “the idea of separation of powers, if not outright violates it.” He reminded his party, “We as members of the General Assembly have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the State of Georgia, these United States, and the laws thereof“ and pledged that “we will not improperly intercede in this matter in direct contradiction to the oaths we took.”
Apart from long shot constitutional amendments and impeachments, there are other more insidious measures afoot that could still have an actual impact. Taking a page from Rep. Jim Jordan, State Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch recently suggested that there could be legislative hearings into whether Willis is using “her position in a political manner.”
Gooch also cited Senate Bill 92, a new law granting a state panel the power to investigate and even oust prosecutors, as a “tool in the toolbox” against Willis. “We believe she is definitely tainted,” Gooch said. “She’s politicizing this, and we want to make sure these people get a fair trial and a fair shake.”
So how big a risk is this new law?
Here’s some relevant background. S.B. 92 created the “Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission” (PAQC) in Georgia. Republicans championed the bill claiming liberal prosecutors were incompetent and were coddling criminals by refusing to prosecute crimes, including victimless crimes like marijuana possession.
Willis criticized the bill as a racist response to voters having elected 14 nonwhite district attorneys across the state. And a group of DAs, not including Willis, have already sued to stop the law from going into effect.
The Commission is in its infancy. It hasn’t yet created any rules on how it will operate or interpret its mission or powers, which include sanctioning prosecutors for “willful misconduct in office” or “undue bias or prejudice against the accused or in favor of persons with interests adverse to the accused.” So it is a bit soon to tell how far it might go.
But we do have some initial signs. The PAQC members are largely appointed by the governor and lieutenant governor. So far, they have not chosen rabid partisans but rather fellow prosecutors. The chair of the hearing committee, for example, is District Attorney Stacey Jackson, who currently serves as DA for the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit. Two other district attorneys were appointed to the investigative panel.
While it’s possible that DAs would turn against their own, and in so doing begin to politicize cases, it seems unlikely to occur in Willis’s case. For the Commission to have any real credibility, its first job out the gate probably would not be to hamstring or even remove Willis from a case as public and important as the Trump case.
But as MAGA politicians in Georgia angle to prove themselves loyal to Trump, we should keep a close eye on their next moves. Like their counterparts in Washington, local officials will seek not only to undermine the Willis’s prosecution at every turn but to claim some credit and glory for having challenged “the system.”
And, as in Washington, it may fall squarely to establishment Republicans, such as Gov. Kemp and Speaker Burns, to keep these efforts from actually impacting the administration of justice. In a twist of irony, Trump may come to deeply regret having attacked Gov. Kemp so personally, given that it is largely his appointments who will determine whether to investigate and hold hearings into Willis’s decision to prosecute.
How sad the Party that once prized itself in being the "party of law and order" (questionable) has morphed into the party of lawless disorder. The grotesque impropriety around which the Republicans wrap themselves confirms how they are the party of enemies domestic. I call attention to an AP article in its 29 August edition: "Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision."
Plus, "With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers."
Our constitutional democratic republic is under siege, fueled by The Heritage Foundation. and super-wealthy conservatives (well-heeled oppressors).
My concern is not just for the job safety of the prosecutors but for the very real, physical safety - for them and their families. I mean.... considering the violent and uncompromising nature of Trump's rabid base.
As for Florida... Draconian abortion laws aside, people are seeing another consequence to electing DeSantis as their governor: the home insurance crisis. Between hurricanes becoming more intense with the global climate change and DeSantis' refusal to acknowledge that reality, insurers are sick and tired of having to pay up, and so, they are pulling out of the state. Those remaining are jacking up their premiums sky-high. Soon enough people will simply not be able to maintain a house in Florida. So, either they'll get angry and turn their legislature around or it will become the biggest, wettest, most broke radical conservative cesspool on the planet.